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Does Pandora Really Have 500K More Listeners Than KIIS in L.A.?

4-24-2012

That could be what L.A. advertisers are being pitched after a recent survey released by The Media Audit. According to the survey, done in September and October of 2011, 1.9 million people listened to Pandora while 1.4 million listened to KIIS-FM.

The Media Audit survey is done twice a year. The problem with surveys and samples and diaries and meters is none of them are 100% accurate and pretty much all of the data can be used in various ways to make anyone look like they have great numbers. Move a daypart here, alter a demo there and before you know it, you have a presentation ready to roll. If an advertiser today sees the Media Audit survey from October of 2011, are those number still valid six months later? Now more than ever, with so many audio options available to both listeners to listen on and advertisers to advertise on, an accurate system is needed for all.

According to The Media Audit survey, Pandora is listed as the number one radio station in the Los Angeles market. During the months of September and October, The Media Audit conducted phone surveys of adults 18+ who said in the previous week they had listened to Pandora. Pandora was followed by KIIS-FM/KVVS-FM, KNX-AM, KROQ-FM and KOST-FM.

And just to illustrate how wacky the entire radio and audio ratings system can be, according to the Los Angeles PPM ratings in March, listed at All Access, KFI-AM was first (not listed in the Media Audit top 5), KIIS-FM was second, KOST-FM was third (not listed in the Media Audit top 5), KBIG-FM was fourth (not listed in the Media Audit top 5) and KPWR-FM was 5th (not listed in the Media Audit top 5). KROQ-FM, listed third by Media Audit is 14th according to Arbitron and KNX-AM, listed 2nd by Media Audit is listed 16th by Aribitron.

Of course the response to the radically different numbers would be: one survey was 6 plus and the other was 18 plus. Really?